1)Because people design Alchemical charms, and Alchemical charms =/=Autobot's framework.
The same submod has a variant that converts flesh to gas, so that organic it kills simply volatilize into thin air leaving no trace.
The section you quoted it from is specifically a section on environmental hazards within the Reaches, but also repurposed as submods for whatever reason. Therefore it Is presented as part of Autochthon, and even assuming it wasn't, why on earth would any nation deliberately develop such a ghastly thing when, as-mentioned, personal Labor is Infinitely More Valuable than raw materials in Autochthonia. People are not disposable. The entire world is made of steel, copper and tin, and the overwhelming majority of the scarcity-economics within the nations relies on workforce-management and super-rare or magical materials. It makes no sense as a naturally-occurring feature, and very little as a weapon for that matter, unless you are using it to be a genocidal rube with no concept of collateral damage.
3) Because Alchemicals DO kill humans on occasion.
Nor are humans and fungi the only organics in Autobot's innards. Feral rats are a significant pest IIRC. Cockroaches are also an issue.
And Craft: Genesis was practiced by some nation-states in more plentiful times/
None of these things are so threatening to or prevalent inside the greater systems to have a specifically devoted chemical admixture for the purposes of purging them in the least useful method imaginable, when things like FIRE, raw-essence or electrical discharge, hard-vacuum and highly-concentrated smoke which induces unconsciousness and asphyxiation already exist in the same domain.
Its an artificial game-construct which exists to demand the use of Shaping defenses on non-meaningful actors, nothing more than that.
The section you quoted it from is specifically a section on environmental hazards within the Reaches, but also repurposed as submods for whatever reason. Therefore it Is presented as part of Autochthon
Natural phenomena within Autochton, yes.
Just like there are resource lines of water and nutrient slurry which apparently play some sort of role in Autochtonian ecology.
and even assuming it wasn't, why on earth would any nation deliberately develop such a ghastly thing when, as-mentioned, personal Labor is Infinitely More Valuable than raw materials in Autochthonia
Why would any nation develop Transcendental Brutality Programming as a gratuitously painful torture charm?
Why do Autochtonian nation-states deliberately engage in war between each other?
Why does Oberashti even exist?
Autochtonia is not a perfectly rational place, and it's denizens, from mortals to Divine Ministers, do not make rigidly logical decisions.
People are not disposable. The entire world is made of steel, copper and tin, and the overwhelming majority of the scarcity-economics within the nations relies on workforce-management and super-rare or magical materials. It makes no sense as a naturally-occurring feature, and very little as a weapon for that matter, unless you are using it to be a genocidal rube with no concept of collateral damage.
Organics are not just people ; even barring mutants/exiles and the various pests that humanity brought with them or developed once they were here, the Pole of Oil is composed of, yes, largely organic oil.
Biocrystalline elementals produce nutrient slurry at the Pole of Steam.
And yes, there certainly is lots of raw material in Autochtonia.
Doesn't mean said materials are available where you happen to be, or want them to be.
Localized scarcity can be an issue, especially when your city is constantly in motion due to the vagaries of Autochtonian geology, such as it is.
None of these things are so threatening to or prevalent inside the greater systems to have a specifically devoted chemical admixture for the purposes of purging them in the least useful method imaginable, when things like FIRE, raw-essence or electrical discharge, hard-vacuum and highly-concentrated smoke which induces unconsciousness and asphyxiation already exist in the same domain.
Autochtonia, or at least the major centropoli, are canonically noted to have pest problems; Rat-Slaying Electrification Grid is a canon Municipal Charm.
The fact that you happen to think that other modalities are better does not mean that the inhabitants agree with you.
Autochtonia's central design philosophy emphasizes the hostility of much of the surrounding infrastructure.
Nation-state citizens going into hazardous areas of this sort will be equipped accordingly.
Alright look, I am not going to debate point-by-point with you, because the initial thrust of this topic was not "does Compass: Autochthonia have a bunch of weird contradictory shit in it," so you quoting more examples of badly-written/internally-justified shit from the same book I've already discounted once as having a bunch of badly-written/internally-justified shit in it is doing Nothing to actively disprove any of my argument here. You're trying to use the book to make a case for itself, which it absolutely can't, because Of Course there will be more of the same kind of dumb shit I have already said is dumb from the book where that dumb shit originated from. So I hope you don't mind if I'll excuse myself from an ongoing debate where you feel comfortable enough countering my claim of "electricity is already an established thing, making this ghoulish shit totally unnecessary and not altogether useful" by going on a tangent about rational logical actors and then "and FYI, cities also use Charm-based electrical grids to deal with rats anyway so there."
This topic started with "these submods are garbage because they don't add much" followed by "turning flesh into metal via Shaping-based-gas attack is not just unwieldy, but worthless in-setting compared to valid alternatives and not especially interesting because it does not even encourage an interesting failure-state beyond a Charm tag no one likes to begin with." So since nothing you've said has been remotely addressing any of that, I'm not here to argue the merits of an entire book's worth of canon with you.
I think Compass: Autochtonia might be the best 2e book.
Can't really be bothered to argue about random minor details like that gas, but when it comes to what matters, the book's great. Well-written, engaging, provides an interesting and game-able setting, has tons of plot hooks and useful details, and strikes a nice balance between consistency and diversity.
Dif, I think your pre-existing hostility to the authors and their other writing on Autochthonia is colouring your opinion here.
A continuation of the above post, I will be using the earlier "Truth is Defined by Authority" charm tree to demonstrate how I would use "Rogthnor's Devil Tiger Charm" to create unique charm trees for an Exalt.
So step 1 is to look at my charms and arrange them into charm trees based on how I use them. In this post I will only be doing the "Truth is Defined by Authority" tree so charms not needed to make it will be omited. So here are my charms prior to going Devil Tiger.
By Pain Reforged
Nightmare Fugue Vigilance
Insignificant Embers Intuition
Crowned with fury
Green Sun Nimbus Flare
Magnanimous Warning Glyph
Fealty Acknowledging Audience
Maddening Astral Piping
Madman's Insight.
That Horrific Wisdom
Action Beyond Thought
Preacherborn Delusions
Society Breaking Truths
Fron this I make the "Truth is Defined as by Authority" tree detailed last post and reposted here.
Nightmare Fugue Vigilance - stop sleeping.
Crowned with Fury - what I like to call Kilgrave lite. Gives him an aura of supernatural command. Can also be used to make someone temporarily mad under Oramus definition, through UMI emotions.
Fealty Acknowledging Audience - Makes people who serve him feel terrified awe so that they will do what I say. Also, if I'm reading it right, makes people Mad under Oramus definition. This will be important for some later charms and his themes.
Ancient and Firstborn - Declare something to be true and always act as if it is. Never break an oath. The root charm of his Truth/The State defines the Truth themes. Combos really well with the next charm on this list.
That Horrific Wisdom- Success doubled for social attacks which attempt to "instruct, educate or reveal truths to a character." So as long as the Infernal believes his reasoning he gets a success doubler. Good thing Ancient and Firstborn lets him decide what he believes to be true.
Action Beyond Thought - Hidden mental commands which activate based on conditions he sets. Works better on mad people i.e people he has branded with Fealty Acknowledging Audience.
Preacherborn Delusions - Rewrites the memories of people. Works better on the mad i.e. people branded with Fealty Acknowledging Audience.
Society-breaking Truths - changes the way whole societies act by revealing a truth.
This leaves the following charms as remainders.
By Pain Reforged
Nightmare Fugue Vigilance
Insignificant Embers Intuition
Green Sun Nimbus Flare
Magnanimous Warning Glyph
Maddening Astral Piping
Madman's Insight.
Of these, the only ones The Heretic Sky never really used was Maddening Astral piping, so it is refunded for XP. The others have been used often enough to be considered part of his repertoire and thus cannot be refunded. Instead they, along with other charms he has purchased will be used to form new charm trees in the same manner as "Truth is Defined by Authority." So these charms can all be set aside for later.
Now it is time to begin modifying the "Truth is Defined by Authority" charms to better represent the mythos of the Infernal. We want these changes to be both simple and comprehensive so that th new charms are easy to make while still feeling distinct. Devil Tigers can no longer buy Yozi charms so we want the player to be able to easily reskin existing ones rather than have to create an entirely new charm every time. Luckily the new charm tree is made up of existing Yozi charms in the first place, so charms from its "parent" Yozi should be easily modified for this purpose. For "Truth is Defined by Authority" I want to be able to buy Oramus' and Malfeas' Mad Preacher charms and Fealty Acknowledging Audience charms with minimal changes to make them Heretic Sky charms.
We also want the change to make the charms better represent how the Infernal used is charm tree, removing the options he avoided and adding new options in line with the his modus operandi. Take care here not to simply make all your charms better. We don't want to play Oramus but all the bad parts of his charms are removed.
As promised here is an example.
The "Truth is Defined by Authority" charm tree is descended from Oramus and Malfean charms.
It was used to get people become the subjects of the Infernal, once they became his subjects his ability to control them was greatly increased. The further down this charm tree you go, the better your Infernal is at controlling those already controlled by him.
Heretic Sky avoided using the "maddness" part of the tree. He didn't infect people with Nognosia to better control them, didn't go go out of his way to recruit those with mental illness, didn't command hordes of Raksha or Lunar Exalted etc. So we want to remove his ability to call on the madness themes of Oramus
He did use Malfeans terror stuff a lot though so we dont want to get rid of that. Terror is still very much a part of how he controls people. (I am actually cnsidering adding in many of the Malfeas' charms that were prerequisites to Fealty Acknowledging Audience. If Malfeas is a City ruled by a Tyrant that controls how y ou act, then Heretic Sky is a police state that controls how you think. Force and fear are very much part of that.)
So the following change is made.
All References to "The Mad" in any Oramus Charms are instead replaced with "The Infernal's Subjects." Subjects include:
Anyone currently under the employ of the Inferal
Anyone currently performing a task at the Infernal's request
Anyone below the Infernal in a formal social hierarchy
Anyone who has sworn to serve the Infernal.
In addition the following charms receive the following changes.
This change stops him from using Oramus' madness themes yet at the same time opens up new options based around Heretic Sky's themes. For example hiring someone for a quick task so that your charms work better, buying an enemies company so that you can rewrite their memories before the quite, or rewarding powerful allies "honorary" positions in your company/kingdom/military so that you can more easily control them.
The following charms receive the following changes.
Malfeas is not a patient Yozi. He can certainly wait when he must, as his surrender and imprisonment attest. However, the nature of the Demon City abhors the restraint implicit to inaction in any form. Whenever an Infernal who knows this Charm makes a social attack that would be considered an unacceptable order if defended against with Impervious Primacy Mantle, the attack becomes an unnatural mental influence costing one Willpower to resist. Flickers of hateful green fires emanate from the Infernal's eyes and mouth while using this Charm, curling up to hint at the outlines of a burning crown upon his brow ornamented with the central jewel of his caste mark. This display fades as soon as the Infernal finishes speaking his attack. This enhancement is not optional.
The Heretic Sky's word is law. Whenever an Infernal who knows this Charm makes a social attack that would be considered an unacceptable order if defended against with Impervious Primacy Mantle, the attack becomes an unnatural mental influence costing one Willpower to resist. Flickers of hateful green fires emanate from the Infernal's eyes and mouth while using this Charm, curling up to hint at the outlines of a burning crown upon his brow ornamented with the central jewel of his caste mark. This display fades as soon as the Infernal finishes speaking his attack. Using this charm against the Infernal's Subjects costs 0m and they do not realize it is UMI.
It's also relatively easy to modify existing charms to fit this theme.
The Solar encourages a society to release its tensions in a mad torrent of emotion. This Charm is a Socialize-based social attack to make a group feel a strong emotion—to lose itself in hatred, grief, lust or the joy of festival. It functions exactly as Wise-Eyed Courtier Method, save that its unnatural mental influence imposes an Emotion effect rather than a belief.
The Infernal encourages a society to release its tensions in a mad torrent of emotion. This Charm is a Socialize-based social attack to make a group feel a strong emotion—to lose itself in hatred, grief, lust or the joy of festival. It functions exactly as Wise-Eyed Courtier Method, save that its unnatural mental influence imposes an Emotion effect rather than a belief. This more costs 3m 0 wp if used against a group that consists of the Infernal's Subjects.
MAJESTIC RADIANT PRESENCE
Cost: 7m
Mins: Presence 4, Essence 3
Type: Reflexive (Step 2)
Keywords: Obvious, Social
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: Any Presence Excellency
The Solar burns with the incandescent radiance of the Unconquered Sun. This Charm intimidates others, negating any physical or social attack made against the Solar unless the attacker's player succeeds on a reflexive resistance roll. The Solar's player chooses when purchasing this Charm whether a difficulty 1 Valor roll or a difficulty 2 Willpower roll is the appropriate form of resistance. The attacker need succeed only once per action, no matter how many attacks she makes during a flurry. This Charm's effects are a form of unnatural mental influence, and characters can spend three Willpower to resist the effects of Majestic Radiant Presence for a scene.
Becomes
Terrifying Tyrant Aegis
Cost: 7m
Mins: Presence 4, Essence 3
Type: Reflexive (Step 2)
Keywords: Obvious, Social
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: Any Presence Excellency
The Solar burns with the incandescent radiance of the a nuclear bomb. This Charm intimidates others, negating any physical or social attack made against the Solar unless the attacker's player succeeds on a reflexive resistance roll. The Infernal's player chooses when purchasing this Charm whether a difficulty 1 Valor roll or a difficulty 2 Willpower roll is the appropriate form of resistance. The attacker need succeed only once per action, no matter how many attacks she makes during a flurry. This Charm's effects are a form of unnatural mental influence, and characters can spend three Willpower to resist the effects of Terrifying Tyrant Aegis for a scene. Characters who are the Infernal's subject double the cost of resistance.
The Solar burns with impossible glory. This Charm can supplement any attempt at natural mental influence. It renders the target's Dodge MDV inapplicable. This Charm is specifically permitted to supplement rolls for other Abilities. Reduce this Charm's cost to 2 motes if Majestic Radiant Presence is already active.
The Infernal's Subjects trust him implicitly and so they are less critical of what he says. This Charm can supplement any attempt at natural mental influence. It renders the target's Dodge MDV inapplicable. This Charm is specifically permitted to supplement rolls for other Abilities. Reduce this Charm's cost to 2 motes if Majestic Radiant Presence is already active. Reduce the cost if this charm by an additional 2 notes if targeting a character who is the Infernal's subject.
You've got the timeline a tad backwards, though that's understandable because I haven't actually bothered to lay out one for myself beyond "I played Exalted when 1e was new," and there's no way you'd be aware of that. But for the sake of all-cards-on-table, the end-results of Alchies 2e and Compass: Autochthonia were formative for my current hostility towards the authors, because prior til that point there was no 'other writing' they had done regarding Autochthon for me to have formed any kind of opinion. Writing which now consists of the Entirety in 2e material for the place at all, and is many folks' first (if not Only) exposure to it to begin with, as intensely frustrating as that is and has continued to be ever since.
So if you want to claim I have an axe to grind, I won't deny that much, but it is because the Alchemicals Manual and Compass together are that axe.
Not at all. My thought was that, as the road builder, he'd, you know, build roads between them all. And elemental power would probably flow down the channel thus made, and it would be a simple circle, rather than a sphere, and even so, I wasn't sure he'd survive the attempt.
Blessing the Wheat goddess (terrestrial circle sorcery)
Cost: 20m
Target: area
The sorcerer writes down the symbol representing the fertility of Gaia, the mother of all life, onto the ground which he wishes the bless. Channeling his essence through the symbol, he infuses the earth surrounding him with the fecundity and fertility of wood.
No matter whether it is clayey soil, stoney ground, or dry sand, any mundane seed planted in the ground will draw upon the life-giving powers of the wood essence, and grow as tall and strong as if they were planted within loamy soil. The essence spreads out around the sorcerer, and after 1 year, it dissipates. The abundance granted to the crops is such that any crops planted in here will be twice as fruitful.
Organics are not just people ; even barring mutants/exiles and the various pests that humanity brought with them or developed once they were here, the Pole of Oil is composed of, yes, largely organic oil.
Biocrystalline elementals produce nutrient slurry at the Pole of Steam.
And yes, there certainly is lots of raw material in Autochtonia.
Doesn't mean said materials are available where you happen to be, or want them to be.
Localized scarcity can be an issue, especially when your city is constantly in motion due to the vagaries of Autochtonian geology, such as it is.
Blessing the Wheat goddess (terrestrial circle sorcery)
cost: 20m target: area
The sorcerer writes down the symbol representing the fertility of Gaia, the mother of all life, onto the ground which he wishes the bless. Channeling his essence through the symbol, he infuses the earth surrounding him with the fecundity and fertility of wood. No matter whether it is clayey soil, stoney ground, or dry sand, any seed planted in the ground will draw upon the life-giving powers of the wood essence, and grow as tall and strong as if they were planted within loamy soil. The essence spreads out Essence X 3 acres around the sorcerer, and after 1 year, it dissipates. The abundance granted to the crops is such that any crops planted in here will be twice as fruitful.
It's not a bad start, and we already have two canonical spells for fertility, Summoning the Harvest and Benediction of the Archgenesis, Terrestrial and Solar, specifically.
So what you're writing is an 'transmute the land to be fertile'. Note that this is really almost strictly better than Summoning the Harvest, so I would make sure that you write your spell with an eye towards Harvest being useful too. Like, Harvest makes crops grow faster. Your spell makes it so crops can be grown in poor conditions + twice as many.
Since we already have Benediction, I'd dig into that spell and scale back the basic idea into your Blessing. 'Acres' are a poor measurement because it's hard to really understand how big an acre is for most players. even a set number of yards or miles across is difficult. Keep in mind how much out-of-game knowledge a PC will have to use to determine how it works. I generally like to design effects around concrete input/output sets, like 'this spell can create enough arable land to feed [Sorcerer's Magnitude] people.
Like I said, it's not a bad start, but it definitely needs polish. Break the spell apart into smaller chunks and really make them work before you add flavorful fluff. Also be careful of phrases like 'Any seed', because you can use that for emergent/unprecedented behaviors like 'what if the PCs have a magic plant that makes swords?'
SWORDSTICK (ARTIFACT •)
This living sword-club can be plucked from one of the sword bushes the Dragon Kings created to allow them to literally grow weapons. Each sword bush produces a cluster of three or four mature swordsticks every two years. This weapon functions as a normal ironwood sword-club, unless the owner commits three motes of Essence. At this point, it returns to life, gaining a brighter and more vibrant color. It also bends itself to the user's will, aiding him in his attacks.
You know thinking about it, Bleach could work amazingly well with Exalted meta. Just replace soul society as a court of gods instead of afterlife and you are golden. In fact I have some fluff in mind for the Death Gods.
Origins
The court of Death Gods is created by singular person whose name is unknown to the mortals. He is known as the First Captain or the Governer General of Soul Society. He was born to mortal mother whom was a consort to a Solar Anathema of unknown origin. In the time of his birth Solar Anathema was rare across the Creation every one of them being hunted down in efficent manner by the Realm. In similar manner First Captains father would not see his birth.
As the son of a Hero and quite clearly godblooded he was well loved his place of birth. Growing to a well loved warrior and a mortal hero of his own right he would travel the world after his mothers death. There are many theories about his travels but all scholars agree that during his travels he came across many shadowlands becoming a well known ghost hunter until he meets his father. Having learned the extent of the underworld and its denizens plans to conquer Creation from his father would be the motivation that would put him to his path to becoming the first Death God.
Heavenly Politics
In truth the extent of the challanges that met the Governor General in the Havens is not well known. What is known however is that he was not alone in his quest to create a new system that would ensure the wheel of reincarnation works. Many of the gods who follows maiden of endings along side the terrestial gods whom has met the ghostly armies in the Creation. However despite this assistance Yu-shans bureaucracy resist any reformation. Especially on that comes from a mere golden child. In this the ritual that creates the Death Gods first comes to being.
Death Gods Creation
In truth Death Gods are distinct from the normal gods in their essence as it was transformed with dead essence taken from underworld and the essence of the Governor General which was diluted form of Sol Invictus. It is said the sorcerious working that ascended him was so complex even the gods working on it did not fully understand it in entirety. More to point it is said it was witnessed by the Maiden of endings herself but truth of it may never be known. As the Governor General was ascended to become a full god he was the one that would allow other gods to become akin to him without such a complex working. The last step necessery to create a force capable of stop underworld armies and their dread masters.
Ascension of Soul Society
The part of the Haven that would later on become to known as Soul Society was simply ghetto of Haven. When Governor General was refused the support necessery to build on heaven he turned his eyes towards the place which gods of heaven did not care for. The ghettos where gods without jobs or any other incomes or even a few that was not meant to be in the heaven but nowhere else to go was pushed to these ghettos and forgotten by the rest of the haven. Many of these gods would be first recruits for the fledgling army. Its Headquarters would be deep in these parts.
What these newly transformed gods accomplished would quiet the gods that refused to allow them any place in the haven declaring them a terrestial court. Across the world Black Storms would descent in to the biggest Shadowlands destroying any ghosts that wanders in them. They would build temples and workings that would slowly reclaim the land. Their temples would teach how to stop ghosts to any body who wants to learn so they could join the army of light.
During this time 3rd, 6th, 9th, 12th divisions would assigned to east, south, west, north collectively taking the name of the black storm.
5th division as the main combat division would become known as the Hammer of the Haven for their numerious victories all across the Creation.
1st division actin as internal affairs ensuring no abuse of power happens
Glory would be theirs as they repaired the very fabric of the Creation.
Oversight
While the armies of the Death Gods fight against the undead forces, Haven does start to take notice the military strength amassed by an (in their eyes) upstart. In order to ensure that forces are not turned against the heaven itself they assign the Committee of Oversight. 40 whose job to oversee the use of this new army, they are considered in charge as they are given the right to veto any large scale operations. This committee would over time become a place of corruption and meddling in the internal workings of the Soul Society. Their declarations of nobility and their arrogance would make many a Death God enemies to them, creating friction.
Lead Up
With the Jade prison broken face of Creation changes. First is the return of the Ghostly Armies to the Creation proper. All across the Creation a new surge of Dead rises.
Second is a new type of enemy that leads the ghostly armies. One that is strong enough to overwhelm any small group of Death Gods.
Third is the Oversight Committees refusal to allow any operations. Forcing Governor General spend ever increasing amount of time at havens in order to keep operation going.
Forth is the politics. Increasingly Soul Society is seen as a dumping ground for politically incorrrect or even a place for criminals. As Soul Society accepts every gods they can get in order to build their numbers none is refused. However with these criminals cames corruption of the ranks.
And finally the assasin strike against the Governor General himself that almost succeeded forcing him to stay in HQ instead of going to field.
Disaster Strikes
As an increasing amount of pressures applied to army it become very clear to Governor General that if there was no change Soul Society would not survive. In order to ensure that change he takes a gamble and sends 5th division against to than newly revealed Mask of Winters. While rewards of the success would have been great so is the punishment of failure. 5th division is no more. In the field of battle Mask of Winters does destroy majorty of the mortal followers and large numbers of Death Gods.
Its tattered remains are trying to rebuild, however with its inertia stopped Soul Society does not have resources to do it. Many of its rivals declaring it unnecessery.
Final Days
This is how Soul Society looks like, In Havens Soul Society is a squatter. Ever increasing pressure is applied to it to move its operations to Creation proper.
It's Governor General spends majority of his time politicking. Behind the walls of the Headquarters he is seen as the last hope of the Death Gods to succeed in protecting the souls of humans. And perhaps stop the Neverborn.
The ghettos which Soul Society is build on has been moved away from the Headquarters. A big wall stands between them now. Many of its denizens look up to those walls with hatred as it was build on their former homes.
In Creation far flung outposts refuse the central command. Declaring themselves independed gods or in some cases even join the armies of the Underworld.
Increasingly large numbers of godblooded children brought to become full gods to build their ranks. Bringing large amount attention to itself.
In secret researchers of Soul Society has increasingly inhuman experiments with ghost blooded in hopes of figuring out a way to turn them to Death Gods. Dreaming about the days they could outnumber the ghostly armies or perhaps turn them against the haven itself.
Welp, my first statement is that Bount are ghost-blooded mortals who grew fat on the souls of living and dead alike, then escaped death & transcended into strange behemoths by seeking out and merging with one of Creation's native spirits (a god or elemental, in other words). Alternatively, you take the easy route and use @EarthScorpion's idea of ghost-blooded mortals who've learned to vomit up their po-souls and command them.
Shinigami might work better as a weird analogue to the Terrestrial Exalted, except with Abyssal mechanics - mortals have a chance of "Exalting" as one at the moment of their death, the transformation binding their souls back together before they truly die. The zanpakuto is a physical manifestation of their keter soul, the embodiment of how they've become something more than mortal.
(Also I had a sudden idea to have it be that sometimes, when a shinigami is killed, the "shinigami Exaltation" goes apeshit and cannibalizes their soul structure to try and sustain itself - in other words, their zanpakuto swallows up their hun and po, creating a "death god" that is almost like the original person, but warped by streaks and smears of their zanpakuto's nature, since there's no longer the hun-po-keter delineation that kept its power separate from the personality-defining parts of the person.
Unfortunately, I couldn't think of a good way to implement them. Free idea, I guess.)
Iron wood isn't alive, unlike the sword stick. I don't think the plants are the same thing, although maybe they could be a (distantly?) related species. Ironwood comes from a tree, and swordsticks grow on bushes.
Iron wood is inferior to actual metal unless you treat it with a Thaumaturgical procedure. I think hardened iron wood isn't any better or worse than actual metal in combat.
Well outside of some really niche cases. If some sorcerer builds a giant magnet, it would be good if your weapon didn't fly off. There is a spirit charm that makes you immune to metal weapons, so having one made would help in that case.
Thematically it would be something that Wood aspect Dragon blood might use.
I think the real utility of Ironwood would come from the production method. It is probably easier to produce than good iron.
You just cut a down a tree and do a three hour procedure, rather than having to mine and refine the iron which takes longer.
It's not a bad start, and we already have two canonical spells for fertility, Summoning the Harvest and Benediction of the Archgenesis, Terrestrial and Solar, specifically.
So what you're writing is an 'transmute the land to be fertile'. Note that this is really almost strictly better than Summoning the Harvest, so I would make sure that you write your spell with an eye towards Harvest being useful too. Like, Harvest makes crops grow faster. Your spell makes it so crops can be grown in poor conditions + twice as many.
Since we already have Benediction, I'd dig into that spell and scale back the basic idea into your Blessing. 'Acres' are a poor measurement because it's hard to really understand how big an acre is for most players. even a set number of yards or miles across is difficult. Keep in mind how much out-of-game knowledge a PC will have to use to determine how it works. I generally like to design effects around concrete input/output sets, like 'this spell can create enough arable land to feed [Sorcerer's Magnitude] people.
Like I said, it's not a bad start, but it definitely needs polish. Break the spell apart into smaller chunks and really make them work before you add flavorful fluff. Also be careful of phrases like 'Any seed', because you can use that for emergent/unprecedented behaviors like 'what if the PCs have a magic plant that makes swords?'
Welp, my first statement is that Bount are ghost-blooded mortals who grew fat on the souls of living and dead alike, then escaped death & transcended into strange behemoths by seeking out and merging with one of Creation's native spirits (a god or elemental, in other words). Alternatively, you take the easy route and use @EarthScorpion's idea of ghost-blooded mortals who've learned to vomit up their po-souls and command them.
Shinigami might work better as a weird analogue to the Terrestrial Exalted, except with Abyssal mechanics - mortals have a chance of "Exalting" as one at the moment of their death, the transformation binding their souls back together before they truly die. The zanpakuto is a physical manifestation of their keter soul, the embodiment of how they've become something more than mortal.
Maybe Shinigami could be the result of a exaltation deliberately designed for ghost? If that makes sense in the context of your AU. It would latch onto the soul that contains your intelligence and memories serving as a replacement for the lost soul returning them a form of psuedo life that fixes most of the weaknesses of being a ghost but they still aren't quite the person they were when they were alive and still run on necrotic essence.
Maybe Shinigami could be the result of a exaltation deliberately designed for ghost? If that makes sense in the context of your AU. It would latch onto the soul that contains your intelligence and memories serving as a replacement for the lost soul returning them a form of psuedo life that fixes most of the weaknesses of being a ghost but they still aren't quite the person they were when they were alive and still run on necrotic essence.
Not everything has to be Exalted. Shinigami is Death Gods. Nobody would call them Death Gods if they are Exalted hence invlidating the idea.
Them being exalted just is not thematically appropriate.
They are either Gods that has been change to be able to respriate essence in underworld (My idea) or them being ghosts that changed/ascended themselves over their long existence (Earthscorpion). Both are valid. Exalted? Not so much. There is already Abbysals after all.
Sometimes, within the dead of night, there is a flicker. A movement out of the corner of the eye. A small movement within the peripheral vision. You hear a crackling sound. You look around, looking for the intruder. You light a lamp. And thus, you call your doom, as the Wight takes form in the shadow, and the last thing you see are ten long fingers reaching out towards you.
The Shadow of all things, the Ebon Dragon, loves doomed and dying things. Thus, one of his second circle demons, in patronage of him, created the Rotting Shadows to give him a surfeit of things that are both. The Rotting Shadows are beasts that are twice as tall as a man, with fingers long enough to be level with their feet. They have no heads, but in their place, their upper torsos have 2 blazing dots that act as eyes. Wights have no true body, as they are simply beings of shadow. They cannot exist without light, as without light, there is no shadow for them to inhabit. But they can still make sounds. When a hapless miner or traveler lights a lamp in order to investigate the disturbance, they cause their own death.
The wight, when given form by the light, can move freely as a bodyless shadow. The touch of a wight is rotting. Flesh blackens. Teeth and nails fall out. Eyeballs shrivel up, and skin necrotizes as the victim rots from inside out. What is worse is that the victim does not die immediately. The soul and brain of the victim is not rotted. Indeed, it is preserved. The husk of the hapless mortal is left to fall onto the ground, left to die within 3 days, but not without spending the rest of its life screaming soundlessly in agony.
Fortunately for the exalted, the wight is significantly less dangerous to them than to mortals. When the wight's shadow body passes over them, they can roll their stamina and resistance against the wight, against difficulty 3. Failure indicates a weakening that passes over in a day. A botch indicates that the touched portion has been rotted off, causing a crippling effect.
The wights, like the ebon dragon, cannot withstand direct sunlight. Even worse, although they need bright light to exist, light that is too bright like flashbangs will destroy them too.
A/N: A wych-kin taken from the book called 'The haunting of Alaizabel Cray'.
For 2e: Assuming he gets through the sorcerer's DV. Let's say he's Dex 2 Archery 2, so 4d to even *hit* the target. Let's say he does by 1, the actual pool is irrelevant for the moment. The arrow is going to deal sux over DV + Str 2 + 2L Raw damage. Hardness cares about Raw Damage, before you roll it, so that's 5 raw damage dice, the hardness of 6 negates it utterly.
Hardness is best examined as a second DV: You must get at least one success over to 'count', but unlike DV, hardness does not subtract from raw damage. Once you beat hardness, Soak is subtracted from raw damage and then whatever's left over is rolled in step 8 to create damage successes/actual HLs of damage.
For 2e: Assuming he gets through the sorcerer's DV. Let's say he's Dex 2 Archery 2, so 4d to even *hit* the target. Let's say he does by 1, the actual pool is irrelevant for the moment. The arrow is going to deal sux over DV + Str 2 + 2L Raw damage. Hardness cares about Raw Damage, before you roll it, so that's 5 raw damage dice, the hardness of 6 negates it utterly.
Hardness is best examined as a second DV: You must get at least one success over to 'count', but unlike DV, hardness does not subtract from raw damage. Once you beat hardness, Soak is subtracted from raw damage and then whatever's left over is rolled in step 8 to create damage successes/actual HLs of damage.
